Does companies support health insurence

Messiano

Hey there, i would like to ask something about what benefits from VFX/game studios.

As you know, every person going to have some health problem sooner or later in his/her life. I got heart problem, and need to do one time a year a EKG, it's electrocardiogram that follow you heart, and found some problems you may have.

So does VFX/Game companies support this kind of thing? I am asking this, because i read so much things about VFX, not support full Health coverage.

So i want to be sure, when it's time to move to other countries for job.

Justin Meisse

I can't speak for VFX but most full time positions at game studios in the US have health insurance as part of your benefits package. If you are a contractor you typically have no benefits, not even paid time off.

Mrskullface

some do some don't, the bigger ones do or should.

spitty

yeah in the US if you are a full-time employee, you should get health insurance with your job, but contract workers usually don't.

how does this work in the rest of the world? i'm under the impression, canada, australia, and most of europe has nationalized health care, so you don't need health insurance.

haiddasalami

Up here in Canada the health insurance usually covers your prescriptions, chiropractors etc. Stuff generally not covered by public health plan. Pretty sure most big and medium companies here offer health insurance and even life insurance.

ambershee

In the UK we do have a socialised healthcare system that's largely very good; when I nearly cut the tip of my finger off in an accident earlier this year, all I had to do was walk 10 minutes down the road and into the hospital and they stitched me back up, bandaged me and sent me on my way again within a couple of hours, without a penny of my own spent. However, most larger companies will still give you optional health insurance that's partially or wholly paid for you, which will allow you to use privatised healthcare if you prefer (which is really handy for dental work, as it happens).

Messiano

Thanks guys, i want to hear about Canada too, how it is there.

haiddasalami

Depends what you're in for. I had to go in for a minor surgery and pretty much everything was covered by the healthcare system minus my painkillers. My dad actually had a mild stroke like a month ago and everything was covered by the healthcare system again though I think the hospital stay was not. Not certain on that. I know for certain surgeries (usually transplants) the wait time is a bit crazy. Same with specialized doctors. Dental and all that other stuff isn't covered so that's where your health insurance comes in.

Wesley

I've seen some of the bigger studios in the UK offer private health care coverage for full-time employees. Splash-Damage has that on their recruitment page if I remember correctly.

almighty_gir

ambershee wrote: »

In the UK we do have a socialised healthcare system that's largely very good; when I nearly cut the tip of my finger off in an accident earlier this year, all I had to do was walk 10 minutes down the road and into the hospital and they stitched me back up, bandaged me and sent me on my way again within a couple of hours, without a penny of my own spent. However, most larger companies will still give you optional health insurance that's partially or wholly paid for you, which will allow you to use privatised healthcare if you prefer (which is really handy for dental work, as it happens).

this.

we have privatized healthcare services, they don't really provide anything "more" than our NHS, but they generally do things quicker/better/more conveniently.

with the NHS there can be waiting times for surgeries for things classed as non-life threatening but still "big", but if you had private healthcare it's in their interests to get your surgery done as fast and as comfortably as possible... because otherwise you just stop paying them.

the one thing that has changed fairly drastically though, is dental care. a whole lot of dentists are starting up private practice because the NHS doesn't pay them what they consider to be a decent wage. because of this, you pretty much have to get private dental care nowadays in the UK.

RexM

Justin Meisse wrote: »

I can't speak for VFX but most full time positions at game studios in the US have health insurance as part of your benefits package. If you are a contractor you typically have no benefits, not even paid time off.

Contractor here, I get full coverage and the same holidays that everyone else in the studio gets off.

VelvetElvis

In the US, you will now be mandated to get health insurance. How that all works is still a little vague, they are leaving it up the each state to provide details.

Here in the US it's fairly rare to find full time employees without any sort of provided health insurance. You may not have the best coverage, pay high premium, and/or have a high deducible but you should at least get some coverage.

Contractors may or may not get insurance, it depends on the company. Usually it's up to your parent company. A lot of my friends are contracted out to one company from the main contracting company. They have insurance through their contracting company.

Freelancers typically don't get any insurance as they are the most independent of the contracting crowd.